The present invention relates to new and distinctive Otomeria plants and, more particularly to Otomeria plants having commercially valuable ornamental traits. The present invention also relates to methods and systems for generating such plants.
The ornamental plant market is saturated with traditional plants and flowers with demand for new ornamental varieties being constantly on the rise in both the cut flowers and potted plant markets.
Otomeria is a member of the Rubiaceae family. The genus includes twenty-one known species of annual or perennial herbs originating from East Africa and Madagascar. Very little is known about the genus and its breeding and as such, none of the Otomeria species are commercially cultivated as ornamental plants.
The species Otomeria oculata is an herb with many erect, non branched stems and ovate, lanceolate leaves. The pink or sometimes white corolla is 18-32 mm long and has a dark center. The tube is narrow and cylindrical and the spreading lobes are 5-10 mm long. This species is a heterostylous, with two types of flowers—a “Female type” flower characterized by short stamens and a long pistil with two-lobed stigma, visible above the petals (termed—pin flower) and a “Male type” flower characterized by a short pistil and long stamens visible above the petals (termed—thrum flower). The ovary of Otomeria oculata is inferior and located on the flowering stalk.
This species is uncommon and found in dry rocky grassland at altitudes of 530-1,650 m (Vuilleumier, B. S., 1967. The Origin and Evolutionary Development of Heterostyly in the Angiosperms. Evolution 21, 2: 210-226.; Blundell, M., 1982. The Wild Flowers of Kenya. p.: 75. Collins, St. James's Place, London).
Otomeria species such as Otomeria oculata have little or no commercial value to the flower industry due to a lack of a breeding program and ornamentally-valuable traits.